Ryan Landi's Public Health Blog

Ryan is originally from Rockford, Illinois. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Augustana College (Rock Island, IL) in 2009. He is a third year dual degree Master of Public Health (MPH) in Policy and Master of Health Administration (MHA) student. He has completed internships with TRICARE Management Activity in San Diego, CA and the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Health Care System (ICVAHCS) and is continuing to work on the University of Iowa’s Emergency Preparedness Plan with the State Hygienic Lab. The past couple years, Ryan has served as president of the environmental group, ECO Hawk, which he helped form with other College of Public Health (CPH) students in the fall of '09. He also served as the VP of Professional Development on the Iowa Student Association of Healthcare Leaders (ISAHL). As a GRA for the MPH program, Ryan will meet with prospective students and keep them updated with current MPH events via Twitter and Facebook and can be followed on his blog located on the CPH’s website.

This student blog is unedited and does not necessarily reflect the views of the College of Public Health or the University of Iowa.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Birthdays, Forums and again Lunch!

Hello all!

So this past week (4 out of 15) for the semester was yet another busy and amazing week! I learned that Biostats, which is one of the core classes for the MPH is going to be a lot more time intensive than I originally thought, but with only one previous stats class I guess I could have seen it coming, haha. I was able to attend a lunch presentation by Chris Atchison, one of the Associate Deans of the CPH, clinical professor and director of the State Hygienic Lab in Iowa. The week then ended with a Birthday bash for my boyfriend Cody and his friends!


Lunch:

Chris Atchison, one of my favorite professors who also teaches "Intro to Public Health Practice" gave a lecture over the lunch hour related to Iowa policies that have been and are working towards meeting the goals of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). It was interesting and very informative to learn some of the laws and bills that are in action within the Iowa legislature and to learn about programs that have been successful in providing more coverage and better quality to Iowans. It also got me thinking of my future career after my degree programs here at Iowa. More and more I have been leaning towards state and local policy instead of at the national level, but I know my overall passion is obviously for public health and health administration. Even as graduate students, we are still indecisive about specifics of where in the country we want to end up and what exactly we want to do (i.e. policy for a private, local, state or federal agency...which one, etc.)


Forum:

At the end of the week there was a CPH forum with Dean Curry, which included all staff, faculty and students. It was a great time to get an update of the building which is still scheduled to be moved in during November 2011! Hopefully I will be able to experience some of the newness my last semester. In addition, she mentioned the "Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)" which is the accrediting body that is coming this fall to reaccredit our college. This is a very big deal for any college of public health and involves many hours of preparation and the support of faculty, staff and students, including yours truly.

CEPH is definitely a factor that made me choose Iowa and is something if you are a prospective student reading this that you should check into when searching for College's of Public Health. In addition of course to tuition, social life and overall experience :)


Birthdays:

The week ended on a Birthday Bash with my boyfriend Cody and his friends with the theme being "What's your Sign?" in terms of your zodiac sign, which his was Virgo's and mine is Libra. It was a great time and fun to see everyone trying to match their individual zodiac signs, there was everything from mother earth, feathers of phenix and madonna!


I can't believe it will already be week 5 coming up tomorrow...hope you all had a wonderful weekend and have a Great Morning!

Ryan



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